By Staff
I want to be more like Amy Payne.
If you don't know her, you really should meet her. She's a graphic artist in our composition department here.
While she's incredibly talented and creative, that's not what I envy.
I envy Amy's outlook on life.
I arrived at work this morning much like I do every morning: Knees hurting already, in need of coffee, focused on the multitude of tasks I must accomplish and the short period of time I have in which to accomplish them.
While not meaning for it to do so, I'm sure my less-than-enthusiastic attitude showed. And, looking around our building, I wasn't alone. Others this morning seemed to share my morning outlook, and that's not a good thing.
I walked in my office, plopped down my purse, started my computer, grabbed my coffee cup and headed for the newsroom, where the coffee pot is located-thinking the whole time to myself, "I'll bet there's not going to be any coffee made and I'm going to have to make a new pot, dang it!" (For the record, there was coffee made. I made the second pot as self-imposed punishment for my negativity.)
I met others there and we kind of all just grunted good morning-greetings to each other.
That's when Amy walked in and greeted us all with a cheery, bright "Good Morning!"
And the thing is, she meant it.
Most every morning is a good morning for Amy. She sees to it! Amy's bright smile lights up a room. I don't work with her closely, but our graphics people are located pretty close to my office and I hear them chat as they go about their jobs each day. I've noticed before that Amy is simply nice to have around, but today for some reason, it was very evident.
She's someone you're happy to see walk into work. She's pleasant while she does her job. She's cooperative, part of the team. Amy's one of those people who, when asked for something extra or special, looks at that request as a challenge, looks at it as an opportunity to help and while doing so, create something unique
Don't get me wrong: Amy's not a pushover. If an ad rep ignores deadlines or tries to take advantage, she'll take them to task in a heartbeat. But her attitude about work and life is one that's healthy. I'm going to make a conscious effort to emulate it.
Why? Because life is short and I love my job and giving anyone, particularly those who I work with every day, any indication to the contrary just isn't right.
You probably have someone like me at your job and someone like Amy, too. You know who you'd rather have around. I sure do!
I know Tom Rattenbury knows what I mean. Tom was publisher of this newspaper for a number of years and brought me to Niles. Neither of us were particularly morning people - and we knew it. Tom also knew that life is what you make of it and he set about trying to change his attitude toward difficult situations.
Tom started coming into the office in the mornings and, when asked how his day was going, he'd answer with a resounding, "Terrific!"
I wanted to kill him. However, his new attitude grew on me.
I know, too, that situations are what you make of them. I just need to be reminded of that more often, like Amy reminded me today simply by saying, "Good morning!"
The next time I walk out of my house - knees hurting, in need of coffee and focused on the multitude of tasks I must accomplish and the short period of time I have in which to accomplish them - I'm going to think about Amy Beth Payne. And the next person I see is going to get a bright and cheery, "Good morning!"
We'll both have better days for it!